The San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals meet in MLB action from Busch Stadium on Monday.
The San Diego Padres will look to build on their 4-2 win over Pittsburgh in Sunday’s series finale. Manny Machado has a team-high 60 hits with 12 doubles, 8 home runs and 27 RBIs while Jurickson Profar also has 6 home runs and 22 RBIs. Eric Hosmer also has 53 hits with a .321 batting average and 9 doubles as well as 4 home runs and 24 RBIs this season. Jake Cronenworth and Trent Grisham each have a pair of triples as well this season. Nick Martinez will start here and is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 41 strikeouts this season.
The St. Louis Cardinals will try to bounce back from their 8-0 loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers last time out. Nolan Arenado leads the Cards with 9 home runs along with 32 RBIs, 13 doubles, 45 hits and a .271 batting average while Tommy Edman has a .278 batting average and 49 hits with 3 triples, 4 home runs and 21 RBIs. Dylan Carlson has 9 doubles, Paul Goldschmidt has a team-high 62 hits, 16 doubles and a. 352 batting average with 10 home runs and a team-high 40 RBIs while Tyler O’Neill has 20 RBIs as well up to this point in the year. Packy Naughton will start here and is 0-1 with a 2.89 ERA and 8 strikeouts this season.
San Diego is 12-2 in their last 14 series-opening games and 4-0 in their last 4 road games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 Monday games. St. Louis is 6-2 in their last 8 games overall and 5-2 in their last 7 home games while the over is 5-2-1 in their last 8 games overall.
I get the case to be made for the Cardinals in this one, but even in a starter role, I’m not sold on Packy Naughton at all. Nick Martinez isn’t the first pitcher I think about laying juice on the road with, even with the Padres, but the Cardinals I think will have a bit of a hangover here after getting beat up in their series finale against the Brewers on Sunday and the Padres are in a good spot at a decent price to open the set with a win here.